The UK government has given its official backing to a new Universal Service Obligation (USO), which was first proposed in Lord Carter's interim Digital Britain review during January (original news) and aims to make broadband speeds of at least 2Mbps available to everybody in the country by 2012. The Budget 2009 (Adobe Reader .PDF) report is typically sparse on detail but strong on spin.


The budget also spoke about next-generation broadband funding, promising to review the powers and duties of Ofcom and ensure it can strike the right balance between delivering competition and encouraging investment in the communications infrastructure.

In addition, the government’s temporary increase in capital allowances for new investment is being earmarked to support businesses investing in the new communications infrastructure. Precisely how this will work, as with so many things in the budget, remains open to speculation.

In short there were no major surprises for broadband ISPs and telecoms operators in this year’s annual assessment of the country’s finances. We'll have to wait for the final Digital Britain report in June/July to see anything concrete.